


A midsummer night's dream

by Ninhaoma



Series: A treaty on the heartiness of citrus fruits [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humour, Magic, Midsummer, Midsummer night, Midsummer's Eve, Romance, Summer, midsummer night magic, so sweet I gave myself diabetes, summer night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninhaoma/pseuds/Ninhaoma
Summary: Nami is on a summery mission: to fulfill some ancient traditions from her home that can only be completed on midsummer night's eve…
Relationships: Nami/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: A treaty on the heartiness of citrus fruits [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751857
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	A midsummer night's dream

A light breeze weaved through the birches, towering in white and black and crowned by a light green, making the tear-shaped leaves rustle gently. The sun had passed its zenith and begun the slow descent which, this one day a year, wouldn’t plunge the world into darkness but rather shroud it in warm shadows and a promise of a long summer still ahead. It was quite natural that the people of yore had attributed magic to midsummer’s night, the longest day of the year.

But now, consider a young woman with bright amber eyes and golden locks cascading down her back. She is dressed in a white, sheer dress that billows in the breeze, her bare feet sinking into the soft, high grass coating the meadow. She’s surrounded by the susurration of summer; the singing birds, the buzzing bees, the breeze, and the occasional laugh echoing through the woods. But at the moment she is separate from the laughter. She is enjoying a rare, peaceful moment of nostalgia and tradition and of simply anchoring herself. In her past and in her future.

Suddenly, she kneels down, plucking a pale flower and adding it to the growing bouquet in her arms. She rises, looks around, smiles, and skips over to a large boulder, adding yet another flower to her collection.

Once she has deemed the amount of flowers adequate, she seats herself next to a large birch. The tree is old, its trunk grown wide, the surface rough and more black than white. The younger birches surrounding it are still shining white in the evening, the dark lenticels only beginning to break through the thin upper layer of bark. With nimble fingers, the woman first lays aside seven flowers and starts putting the rest together in a complicated pattern. After a short while, she stops, then adds two flowers more to the pile beside her. She then continues with her task, weaving flowers and grass together.

Now shift your focus to the man who has been observing her from the shadows in the copse. He is a tall man, arms crossed, tattoos on his arms peeking out from under his shirt. His black hair is mussed, and dark circles underline his sharp eyes. He is leaning against one of the few ash trees in the area, its leaves among the last to join in the summer greenery.

“Are you joining me, or will you stay sulking in the shadows?” an amused voice rang out, startling the dark man. He huffed, but did approach the woman who was looking at him with joy clearly written all over her pretty face.

“I am not sulking, Nami-ya,” Trafalgar Law said in a tone that some could call haughty. They wouldn’t dare do that to his face, though. Except this woman; she might be so bold.

“Well, whatever it was, it was killing my midsummer mood. Sit down, and give me that daisy,” she commanded, pointing at a white flower next to his boot. He rolled his eyes, but did as he was bid, seating himself beside her, leaning against one of the birches. Nami smiled at him and refocused on her weaving work, humming under her breath. Law suspected it was unconscious and try as he might, he didn’t recognise the tune. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander.

Nami regarded the dark doctor from the corner of her eye, picking out the next flower to add to her work. A small smile, which she suspected was unconscious, graced his face, rendering a surprisingly soft expression on it. He seemed to be at peace. She smiled as well, continuing weaving flowers and humming the old tunes accompanying the season.

“Are you always this happy this time of the year?” he inquired after a while, having enjoyed the present and summer silence enough.

“Around midsummer, you mean? Usually I am.”

“But why?”

She shrugged, never stopping the quick movements of her fingers. “It’s just one of those seasons where everything is perfect. The days are long and full of light and sunshine and the occasional summer drizzle. The summer storms are approaching, but not yet here, and there’s just so much _life_ everywhere. There’s usually food to be found in nature and a promise of harvest to come. Birds are singing and people are happy. What’s not to love?”

Law regarded the woman, following the movements of her hands, going over and under, twining stems together.

“I always took you for an autumn girl.”

At that, Nami laughed out loud.

“Really? All due respect to falling leaves and an approaching winter and all hallows eve, but I’m a summer girl through and through. The heart of summer on summer islands can be a bit too much though, so this is the perfect place for me; a spring island in full bloom.”

“Wouldn’t have guessed,” he mused, a small smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.

“What about you, mister scary doctor?”

“Don’t have one,” he shrugged, causing the woman to eye him suspiciously.

“Really? A bit hard to believe that; _everyone_ has a favourite season. Except maybe Luffy, who’s happy as long as there’s meat.”

He smiled at her incredulity, shrugging again for emphasis, “I don’t. After what happened in Dressrosa, I’m just enjoying every day as it comes.”

A raised eyebrow and a short nod signified her acceptance. “Thanks.”

They both knew what she meant.

Thank you for sharing that with me.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for being you.

“So, what’s your favourite part of the holiday,” he asked her after a moment.

Nami cocked her head, considering his question as she picked through the last few flowers, her work nearing its end.

“Well, part is the food. I really like herring and potatoes. And of course, the copious amounts of snaps,” she winked at him, enjoying his amused huff.

“Of course you would enjoy that, woman whose liver I have yet to vivisect.”

“Oi, do that creepy stuff to Zoro! We have comparable levels of tolerance, as you well know, Mr. Lightweight, and he’s not as squeamish as I am.”

“But it’s much more interesting to look at a _woman_ ’s liver,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her, “especially taking into consideration how differently alcohol is digested by female and male bodies…” He only stopped when she chucked a small branch at his head, chuckling all along. “What else is there about midsummer?”

Nami smiled wistfully.

“Mostly it’s the magic.”

Silence descended on the pair as Law contemplated her words. So, she believed in magic? In a world of mermaids and kingdoms in the air that wasn’t such a farfetched idea – he had just never seen anything like magic as described in the old tales and histories. On the other hand; Vegapunk had created dragons and there were mythological devil fruits, so maybe legends had some basis in reality after all.

“Magic?” he inquired, plucking a few strands of grass.

Nami smiled at him, sensing his attitude.

“Maybe not magic as technical as my clima-tact, but magic of the old folks. The magic of dancing around a midsummer pole with your friends and family, although if I’ll never again have to sing about frogs, I’ll die a happy woman.”

Law smiled at the disgruntled tone.

“Did you know the tradition comes from North Blue? Not the frog one, but the midsummer pole?”

Nami regarded him with surprise, “No, I didn’t.”

He leaned back against the tree, arms crossed behind his head. “It does, it would seem that the tradition crossed the Red Line a few hundred years ago. But there is little known about its origins, just some speculation related to fertility rituals.”

Nami scoffed as she hovered over her next choice; columbine or mother-of-the-evening? Of course the _erection_ of a long pole, clothed in leaves, sometimes topped with a few large circles, would be considered _fertile_ , “Hard to see where that notion comes from. I truly wonder.”

Law’s smile turned into a smirk as he crossed his long legs in front of him. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

At that, she laughed out loud, and making a small knot of grass, closed the loop. She lifted up her creation, admiring her handiwork in the late evening sun.

“I’ll refrain this time,” she answered. “But I wasn’t finished with my explanation about the magic.”

“I’m all ears,” Law answered, closing his eyes once again, enjoying the scents of summer, the rustle of fresh leaves, and the lingering warmth in the air. There really wasn’t anything that could compare to the pale blue of a summer night on a spring island.

“Well, for once if you sleep with seven flowers under your pillow, you’ll dream about your true love,” he could hear her moving about. A furrow crossed his brow.

“But you had nine laid aside, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, that depends on which village you listen to as some say it’s supposed to be nine flowers. I thought I’d better be safe than sorry; if I have nine, then seven is included in that as well.”

“Didn’t know you had that kind of needs,” he mused, feeling the breeze play in his hair, bringing with it a strand of music from the party their crews were having on the beach.

“I don’t really,” Nami answered, as he felt something placed on his head. “It’s mostly my security check if something happens to _this_.”

Law opened his eyes to see the beautiful witch smile at him a few scant breaths away, her eyes crinkled with happiness. He felt his hair press down by the weight of the crown she had been weaving. Eyebrows climbed high on his forehead.

“Really, Nami? A _flower crown_?”

Her smile turned to a smirk as she gave him a peck on the nose.

“Yup. That’s the second part of flower magic. If you’ve found the one, you’re supposed to make them a flower crown that they can’t take off during the whole night. If they do, it curses the relationship and there’s no future for them.”

“You are a true witch, you know? No way Penguin and Shachi will ever let it go if they see me like this.”

The navigator laughed as she clasped his hands, dragging her grumpy boyfriend up to a hug and a kiss.

“That’s the plan, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> According to SBS 38, Nami's favourite season is summer on a spring island, which is what I imagine a Swedish summer to be. And according to google, the midsummer pole hails from Germany *wink wink nudge nudge*
> 
> This came to me when I was supposed to be preparing for midsummer festivities, in other words: packing. I'm procrastinating packing. And a horribly long car trip tomorrow. Yay.
> 
> As for the obscure frog reference – this is what happens in Sweden on midsummer's day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqAiPkgTpy4


End file.
